Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Right now I'm building a desk for my wife and I decided to undertake turning my own legs for the project. I didn't really want to purchase a lathe (and learn how to use it), so I found a technique which uses a clever jig plus a plunge router to do simple turnings. The idea came from the book Router Magic by Bill Hylton.

The way it works is you create a box with an open top and holes drilled in each end such that you can suspend a blank in the jig and allow it to turn freely. Then you create a sled that attaches to the base of your router. This sled then slides back and forth along the length of the blank. You just turn the blank by hand as you slide the router back and forth. I used a dish cutting bit in the router and it did an excellent job. Just a slight bit of sanding was necessary after turning the legs.